Taiwan is a country full of scooters. Most are petrol, however electric scooters are becoming more popular. Taipei is almost choked with scooters. I assume this because of traffic congestion and price. It's quicker and easier to move around Taipei by scooter compared to car. Moreover many of the roads are designed to ease scooter (and bicycle) movement.
Car parking is a problem. There is a serious shortage of spaces and cars circle like predatory sharks looking for a vacant spot. As one car leaves another promptly snatches the space.
Running beside most roads is a marked one metre wide strip reserved for scooters and bikes. At traffic lights there will be a marked stop line for vehicles. In front of this line will be a painted rectangle for scooters and bikes. This enables scooters and bikes to ride passed stopped vehicles and then queue at the lights in front. In front of the scooter rectangle will be the pedestrian crossing. Finally, there will be a further marked rectangle beyond the crossing reserved for scooters and bikes who have arrived from the left.
In the above photo you can see to the far left the scooters at the traffic lights in front of the vehicles. Next the pedestrian crossing and then the scooters who had approached the intersection from the left (in this photo) and want to turn left.
The scooters in this front box actually came from the direction of the left arrow. Rather than turn left across all the moving vehicles they pull to the right into this box and wait for the lights to change. It's a much safer operation for the scooter and bike riders.
Scooters get squeezed into every available space. In Taipei scooter parking costs TWD$20 per day.
Even the police ride scooters!
You don't see many police patrols in West Australia. In Taiwan there are both police stations and patrolling police everywhere.
Taipei has some lovely parks
I didn't initially realise it but this large park had a large underground car park beneath it
This little fellow was so friendly he was at my feet.
Obviously a group of keen photographers with some seriously looking expensive gear.
Not sure what they were photographing?
s
4 comments :
Some great photos and loved following your trip around Taiwan
Lets hope they do change to electric as the 2 stroke engines in a lot of the small bikes/scooters (except the ubiquitous Honda c50) chuck out a lot of pollution. A lot of asia needs to go that way.
Wishing you and Jan a very merry Christmas, a happy new year and safe travels.
Dave (Scouts)
You must be almost ready for your trip home. Hope you have come up with a solution to the battery problem.
Dave the govt offers a discount if an electric scooter is purchased and the local electric scooter manufacturer is also installing battery exchange booths (photo in the next post). Petrol will gradually be phased out as scooters get replaced.
Jenny last day today. A 7 hour layover in Hong Kong and I arrive in Perth at 6am. No solution for the return of the battery at this time. However even if I leave it behind it will have still been a cheaper option than locally hiring an e-bike for the trip.
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